Evaluation of Italian radiotherapy research from 1985 to 2005: preliminary analysis

The difficulty in conducting meaningful clinical research is a multifactorial issue, involving political, financial and cultural problems, which can lead to unexpected negative long-term consequences, in terms of knowledge advancement and impact on patient care. The aims of the present review were to evaluate the publications of Italian radiotherapy (RT) groups during a 20-year period and to verify whether research is still appealing to young radiation oncologists (ROs) in Italy.

PubMed database was searched for English-language articles published by Italian groups from January 1985 to December 2005. Analyzed variables were: publication/year, kind of study, geographical area and age of the first author.

The systematic review identified 3291 articles: 1207 papers fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The number of Italian published papers increased during the examined period. Retrospective analyses, prospective phase I-II trials and literature reviews were 44, 20 and 14.5% of all published manuscripts, respectively. Randomized trials showed a mild increase from 2000 to 2005, but their absolute number remained low respect to other types of studies (4%). Northern Italy produced the very most of Italian research papers (58.7%). The age of the first/second author was evaluated on 716 papers: In more than 50% of cases, the first author was younger than 40.

Despite a general gradual improvement, RT clinical research suffers in Italy (as elsewhere) from insufficient funding, with a negative impact on evidence production. It is worth noting that clinical research is still appealing and accessible to junior Italian RO.